1944: Everything We Have 2019: Can We Be Drawn Into Another Big War

View this post on Instagram

At my friend Dr Nic Mueller’s book unveiling “Everything We Had 6-6-44”. I received an advance copy. Really brings it home. Get one.

A post shared by Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures) on Mar 20, 2019 at 4:09pm PDT

Last night I was at the Pritzker Military Library here in Chicago to listen to my friend Dr. Nic Mueller talk about his new book, “Everything We Have 6-6-44”.  I received an advance copy of the book.  It’s different than other books you might read on the topic.  If you remember the old show, “And You Were There” when they re-enacted historical things, this book is a lot like that.

It’s raw.  Not just because of the topic.  Because it comes from the mouths of the people that were there.

This isn’t dry history of facts and figures.  It’s how people experienced it, and saw it, in their own words.  Some of it can be really hard to read.

My first thoughts are always, “Would I be able to do that?  Would I measure up?  How could I do that?”  My old friend Walt Ehlers who received the Congressional Medal of Honor didn’t hesitate.  He said I could and that anyone could.

Some people wonder if America could again?  Nic says his friend Stephen Ambrose would say, “Hell yes.”

Today, our country is divided on a lot of things.  Sometimes the lines are clear and bright, and sometimes they aren’t.  Could we find the American spirit to undertake something like WW2 again?  Would we be willing to muster the resources and the intestinal fortitude to execute on something like that?

I echo Ambrose.  Hell yes.  It wouldn’t be the same as it was in 1940.  We learn from history.  History can repeat itself but it is never exactly the same even though the melody might be similar.

Today in the WSJ there is an article, “Yes, the U.S. Could Be Drawn Into Yet Another Big War”.  A big war is always simmering somewhere on the horizon. The question always is, Should you fight it?  Americans are not a war-first kind of country.  Traditionally it is our culture to act very slowly. From the Revolutionary War to any other war we have fought, the pot simmered before the top blew off.  Usually, it was some extraneous thing that caused the pot to boil over out of America’s control.  Pearl Harbor is an example and so is 9/11.

Of course, our engagement in the Middle East since 2003 has plunged America into its longest war with no real way of winning or exiting.  Yet, we certainly need to fight terrorism since it can come to our shores so easily.  What a conundrum.

We can read all we want about this stuff and ponder it.  Sometimes it’s best to press the flesh and experience it and think about it in a room with others.  On May 23rd, you ought to be in New Orleans at the World War Two Museum’s black tie gala.  If you go, you can do just that.  Instead of handing out a bunch of awards, they will host a discussion about America’s role in the world. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Former Senator Joseph Lieberman will be engaged in a lively conversation that will stimulate something inside you.  I will be there with my wife.